Ted Montgomery at USA Today takes a look at “players who tend to be overrated by any combination of fans, the media and their own team.” For example:

Dominik Hasek, Detroit:
Hasek is still his acrobatic, unpredictable self, on and off the ice, but he no longer routinely steals games for his team like he once did, and on more than a few occasions, he costs his team a victory with his wanderings from the crease. He’s easily among the worst puck-handling goaltenders of all-time, and his fairly recent tendency to overplay shooters results in some goals that probably shouldn’t have been scored. Add to this the fact that his health always seems tenuous and you get the profile of a once great goaltender who is on that long descent down from the top of the mountain.

Didn’t I say I wouldn’t whine about the schedule anymore. Didn’t I Gary? If you’re looking to pass the time before they drop the puck on the other side of the world (but in the same conference…ass), I’d recommend Lowetide. A good look at the Wings, with a nice tribute to a few legends.

He (Frank Mahovlich) used to barrel down the left wing and release bombs from inside the blueline in a time when goalies could get beaten by the best shooters on that kind of play.

When I was a kid, the Red Wings had really old guys. Alex Delvecchio looked like the guys who lived in the old folks home I delivered papers to when he was still playing in the NHL, Gordie Howe was an icon who seemed to be as old as hockey itself.

Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke says the Randy Jones hit from behind that injured Patrice Bergeron illustrates why the defensive “bear hug” should be legal when a player is in a vulnerable position.

“In those situations a defenseman has two choices right now: He hits the guy or he looks like a fool,” Burke said. “We need to put the third option back into the game.”

Before the lockout, when a defenseman approached a player with his back to him, he would put his arms around the player and “bear-hug” him into the glass. In an effort to open up the game, the NHL ended that practice by penalizing a player who takes a hand off his stick to tie up a player.

“In the old days, the two bodies went in together,” Burke said. “Now it’s like two billiard balls. One ball hits another and propels it into the boards.”

It happened in New York when the Islanders hired Ted Nolan. The tide turned across town when the Rangers brought Tom Renney on board. Columbus is buzzing with Ken Hitchcock teaching the Jackets how to play, just like the culture shifted when the Carolina Hurricanes hooked up with Peter Laviolette.

The Boston Bruins are hoping that first-year bench boss Claude Julien brings a similar reversal of fortune. The first order of business, right at the top of Julien’s “to do” list, is always to change the culture.

“I don’t know if there’s a challenge, but the one thing you do want to do is establish an identity for this hockey club and we certainly want to have a better year this year,” Julien told NHL.com.

Many believed that after 13 seasons under Clarke, the Flyers needed a complete front office makeover. But by March 14, Holmgren had carefully dismantled the worst team in club history, exchanging veterans Peter Forsberg, Kyle Calder, Alexei Zhitnik and a second-round draft pick for dynamic young forward Scottie Upshall, promising defensemen Braydon Coburn, Lasse Kukkonen and Ryan Parent and a hungry, resurgent goaltender, Martin Biron.

The new Blues management team has done many things right while rebuilding this downtrodden team.

Near the top of that list was the decision to send offensive defenseman Dennis Wideman to the Boston Bruins for versatile forward Brad Boyes back on Feb. 27. This was wasn’t a big move, but it was very important.

“One of the best trades I’ve seen,” Blues goaltender Manny Legace said with a chuckle. “He’s been a key part of the team since he got here. I’m glad he’s here.”

The Montreal Canadiens are calling for an NHL rule change after defenceman Francis Bouillon suffered a shoulder injury from a hit in the dying seconds of overtime.

The Canadiens feel that Pittsburgh defenceman Sergei Gonchar should not have been allowed to take part in a shootout after he was called for boarding with 1.6 seconds left in the five-minute overtime in Montreal’s 4-3 win over the Penguins on Saturday night.

“How many people can say their Thrasher jersey has traveled from one end of the earth to the other?! My Thrashers jersey has literally traveled around the world from the Middle East to East Asia, traveling thru Europe and the Pacific along the way. In August, my jersey and I took a short deployment to Kuwait. In October, my jersey and I deployed to Qatar. Hockey jerseys were not made with the middle east in mind- the temperature was 115 degrees while taking these photos”

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